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Driven by outrage and a resolve to correct a power imbalance that seemed intractable just months ago, 300 prominent actresses — including Reese Witherspoon, America Ferrera and Kerry Washington — and female agents, writers, directors and entertainment executives have formed an ambitious initiative to fight systemic sexual harassment nationwide.

The initiative includes:

• A legal-defense fund, backed by $13 million in donations, to help less-visible women — like janitors, nurses and workers at farms, factories, restaurants and hotels — protect themselves from sexual misconduct and the fallout from reporting it.

• Legislation to penalize companies that tolerate persistent harassment, and to discourage the use of nondisclosure agreements.

• A request that women walking the red carpet at the Golden Globes on Jan. 7 raise awareness by wearing black.

Called Time’s Up, the movement was announced Monday with an impassioned pledge of support to working-class women in an open letter signed by hundreds of women in show business.

Time’s Up members said they were influenced by a November letter sent on behalf of 700,000 female farmworkers who said they stood with Hollywood actresses in their fight against abuse.

“It’s very hard for us to speak righteously about the rest of anything if we haven’t cleaned our own house,” said Shonda Rhimes, executive producer of the television series “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Scandal” and “How to Get Away With Murder.”

Time’s Up is leaderless and made up of working groups. One group, 50/50by2020, is pushing entertainment companies to agree to reach gender parity in their leadership tiers within two years. In early December, after Rhimes pressed him, Chris Silbermann, a managing director at ICM Partners, pledged that his talent agency would meet that goal.